Grab-hook for hoisting mechanism.



G. WRIGHT. GRAB HOOK FOR HOISTING MECHANISM, APPLICATION men Nov.a.19u.

Patented Oct. 8, 1918.

l 1 1m I llllllllllllllllllllllllIllllllllllllllllljl WITNESSES G W [Aggy/TOR ATTORNEYS GEORGE WRIGHT, 0F NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

GRAB-HOOK FOR HOISTING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 8, 1918.

Application filed November 8, 1917. Serial No. 200,924.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE WRIGHT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Grab-Hook for Hoisting Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Among the principal objects which the present invention has in view are: To facilitate the handling of packages of various shapes and sizes; to provide manually-controlledmeans for operating the grab hook to release said packages whenv deposited thereby; to expand and contract the grapping members of said hook, the operation being inaugurated and guided to a distance from the object to be engaged; and to simplify the mechanism and to reduce the cost thereof.

Drawings.

Figure 1 is a side View of a hook of the character mentioned constructed and arranged in accordance with the present invention, the same being shown in conjunction with a package being lifted;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the same;

Fig. 3 is a sectional detail view on an enlarged scale, of the grab-operating mechanism, the section being taken as on the line 33 in Fig. 2.

- Description.

The grab hook herein disclosed is used principally in connection with the hoisting mechanism shown and described. in a copending application for improvements in freight piers, filed by me the 8th day of November, 1917, said application bearing Serial N 0. 200,923, as herein disclosed.

As shown in said application and as indicated in the drawings forming part of this disclosure, the cables 18 and 19 are suspended from an overhead hoisting mechanism and are wound on a drum 20 fixedly mounted on a shaft 21. The shaft 21, as shown best in Fig. 3 of the drawings, has fixed thereon, duplicate pairs of gear wheels 22 and 23. The teeth of the gear wheels 22 and 23 operatively engage the teeth of rack sections 2 and 25 of the hooks 26 and 27, respectively. The rack sections 24 and 25 are held in engagement with the wheels 22 and 23 by pivoting stirrups 28.

The hooks 26 and 27 are disposed in paired arrangement and are connected at their free ends by spreader bars 29. Each hook and the rack sections thereof is furnished with a stop pin 30, which pins engage the stirrups 28 if the hooks are moved outward through the said stirrups beyond the capacity of the said hooks.

The cables 18 and 19 are extended from the drum 20 at opposite sides thereof so that when the cables are drawn from the drum it rotated successively in relatively opposite directions. It is obvious that if desired the two cables 18 and 19 may be substituted by a single cable wound on the drum 20, the extensions whereof pass thcrefrom at opposite sides.

It will be observed that when the cable 18 is drawn upward, the drum 20 and the shaft 21 associated therewith are so rotated that the wheels 22 and 23 operate to take up the rack sections 24 and 25 of the books 26 and 27, respectively. The immediate result of this operation is to draw the ends of the hooks 26 and 27 having prick points 31, in contact with, to engage a package, if the sides thereof do not permit of being enfolded by the crook of the hooks 26 and 27.

It is obvious that after the hooks 26 and 27 have firmly engaged the package, a continued pull on the cable 18 results in elevating the hooks and the package held thereby.

As described in the above-mentioned application, the package is conveyed to a point of deposit. lVhen the package has been thus conveyed to its destination, the cable 18 is payed out with the result that the hooks and package are lowered until the latter comes to a rest. In this position, the cable 18 is slacked and the cable 19 is operated. Operating the cable 19 rotates the drum 20 and the shaft 21 connected therewith in a direction relatively opposite to that above described. The wheels 22 and 23 rotating in the same direction spread the hoops 26 and 27 in opposite directions until the points 31 fully release the article with which they have been engaged. The release of the article being this secured. the movement of the cable 19 may be arrested. If it is desired to lift the hooks 26 and 27 while thus extended, the cables 18 and 19 are simultaneously hoisted, said hooks and mechanism connected therewith being elevated without changing the arrangement of the said hooks.

It is obvious that if the package to be handled is su'liiciently small to pass Within the crooks of the hooks 26 and 27, the said hooks may be caused to enfold the said package, by manipulating the cables 18 and 19, relatively. That is to say, if the cable 18 is arrested While the cable 19 is drawn upward, the hooks 26 and 27 are relatively spread or extended outward from the center of the shaft 21. \Vhen the curved ends or crooks of the hooks 26 and 27 rest upon any object, the curved sides thereof furnish sliding or Wedging surfaces which cause the hooks to open to the position substantially as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1 of the drawings. 7

As seen best in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the cables 18 and 19 are prevented from becoming entangled adjacent the drum 20 by a cross bar 32. At each end of the cross bar 32 eyelets 33 are provided as guides for the said cables. The bar 32 is mounted at the end of an arm 3 1, Which extends above the Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the shaft 21 and is provided with a collar 35 rotatively mounted on the said' shaft.

Ulaim.

A grab hook for hoisting mechanism, comprising a plurality of hook members, each having rack sections, and disposed in paired relation, the ends of the members of each pair being equally spaced from the median line of said hoisting mechanism; an operating shaft, the center of said shaft being;

coincident With said median plane, a plurality of gear Wheels fixedly mounted on said.

same to expand or contract the engaging ends of said hooks.

enonon WRIGHT.

Washington, I). 0.

Commissioner of Patents, 

